Wow! Two entries in two days? I know...how can this be? Well, I've totally been out of the Xanga loop and feel left out.  So in order to get back in it, I need to blog more. So here I am again!

In a nutshell, our Dominican Republic trip was tons o' fun.  Roger and I arrived on a Wednesday.  I did some wedding stuff with Cindy on Thursday.  The wedding rehearsal and welcome dinner was on Friday.  The wedding took place on Saturday.  On Sunday, I fainted due to dehydration.  On Monday, we spent 6 hours at the airport rescheduling our flight for Tuesday since it was cancelled that day. Of course, there was non-stop eating, and time at the spa, beach, and at the pool all in between that.

Read the rest if you want the long version.    

Cindy and Andre's wedding was absolutely beautiful! Beach weddings are breathtaking and so much fun.  Although many people credited me for helping Cindy plan her wedding, I was quite impressed with her organizational skills! (Hehe! Seriously Cindy...towards the end of planning, I had no involvement.)  Anyway, I loved her wedding and seeing all the pieces come together.  Here come the pictures....

DIY Projects
Before the wedding, I was in charge of making the ceremony programs and the dinner menus.  Normally, I would talk about how I made these which were pretty simple, but I will save that for another post if people are interested.

      

The Wedding Rehearsal and Welcome Dinner
     
It was actually QUITE windy on the beach, and you'll notice it more in the actual wedding day pictures, but I just remember talking to the other bridesmaids about making sure we tell the hairdresser to put all our hair up so it won't fly everywhere the next day.  During the wedding ceremony rehearsal, the officiant practiced the part where he asks, "Who gives this man to this woman?"  Andre's mom is supposed to say, "I do."  However, his mom, sister, and sons all said, "We do!" I think his sister even said, "For free!" It was pretty funny and gave everyone a good laugh.

Getting Ready
  
Yes, she definitely is a sexy little bride.  Check out the hair comb she made thanks to inspiration from Weddingbee!
 
 
Her parents were so cute.  Bridesmaid dresses were purchased from Nordstrom.  You know how people always say you can't where bridesmaids dresses again.  Well, the dress was a lot of fun to wear AND can be worn again!  While we were putting on the final touches, it started pouring.  The resort wedding organizers called the room to ask Cindy if she wanted them to move the ceremony indoors.  However, it was 15 minutes before the ceremony start time, and it would take 2 hours to move it. She decided to wait out the rain a bit and go on with the show!

Pre-Ceremony Downpour (Roger took these photos.)
 
The picture on the left was taken before it started pouring.  As you can see in the next three pictures - the dark clouds were hovering, but we knew it would pass since the downpours don't last too long down there.  I always believe that everything happens for a reason and the rain brought us something beautiful which you'll later see in the ceremony photos.
 
By this time, Cindy, her parents, and the bridesmaids were picked up to head to the ceremony location.  When we arrived, the rain started again.  We all got a little wet since the rain was blowing sideways into the car.  The one shot I wish we had was of the one of Cindy's father totally getting drenched because he was protecting his daughter from the rain.

The Ceremony
  
  
Don't you just love the rainbow? You can see it from end to end!
PERFECT and BREATHTAKING!
     
    
 

The Reception
  


The mother/son dance was a salsa.  Mom was surprised she had to salsa, but did a great job. Andre is probably really good at leading too.
    
Father/daughter dance included Andre dancing with Cindy's mother as well which I thought was a great touch.  The last picture is hilarious.  During the tea ceremony, Cindy's father does this whole long speech about how to have a successful marriage.  When it came time for Cindy's mother to speak, she says, "You stole my speech."

Post-Reception
Many of us headed to the hotel lobby where we found the craziest party ever (yes, party in the hotel lobby).
 

Every night the resort provides entertainment for guests. It was seriously like a rave.  I loved it! HAHA!

Andre danced with his sons a few times which was a lot of fun to see.  Here is Roger teaching the guys the star dance.  If you don't know what this is, Roger and/or I will have to teach you.

Yeah. I don't know what they're doing. HAH!  They're so cute aren't they?  YAY! The happy married couple! Good times! 

The day after the wedding, I ended up going to the spa, hanging out at the beach and the bar inside the pool (yes, it's so cool), drinking and just basically in the sun all day that I ended up fainting twice before dinner (yes, twice).  I literally fell unconscious on the hotel floor.  I was actually sent to the medical center.  The doctor told me that they could give me medicine that would cost me over $100 or drink two bottles of gatorade.  We chose the gatorade.  I was fine the next morning.

I was fine until we spent 6 hours at the fricken airport trying to reschedule our flight for the next day.  Our flight to Philly was cancelled because of the snow storm.  US Airways ended up sending us to this really crappy resort that was two resorts down from the beautiful Paradisus Punta Cana.  Roger and I ended up walking down the beach back to the resort and hung out with Anthony and Jonthan before we went back to the crappy hotel. Jonathan was quite surprised when I called his hotel room from the lobby.  Hah!

After that, it was time to head to Michigan for Christmas with my new family! I won't be blogging about that trip, but I wanted to post this picture.  It is by far one of my favorite pictures that I have ever taken.  This is what happens when you go to sleep at 3AM and have to wake up at 7AM to drive Roger and me to the airport.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The year of rat mostly involved wedding related events.  Yes, a lot of other events took place such as my 27th birthday wino party, Wanda Sykes, camping, NKOTB (I love them!), Gund Kwok's 10-year anniversary, and trips to DC, NYC, Michigan, Seattle, Portland, Connecticut, Providence, and Dominican Republic.  However, wedding planning and weddings were on-going highlights of the year.  Would I go through all the wedding planning again? To no one's surprise, yes. It was just so much fun planning a huge party for all my friends and family - including the paper products/DIY projects, deciding what kind of flowers to have, dress and shoes shopping, engagement pictures, online wedding ideas shopping, planning the glowstick extravaganza (hehe), wedding blogging, reading/commenting on other wedding blogs , and more.  There were definitely headaches - moms, Chinese traditions, and of course, the budgeting.  Overall, my wedding day was, in my eyes, a huge success that will forever be imprinted in my memories.  By far one of my favorite memories from that day is of our parents dancing across the floor to kiss each other.  Check it out!

I will forever laugh at these videos.  Thanks to Jonathan for taking these and sending them to me! Unfortunately, I did not have a videographer for our wedding, and I now regret it a little bit.  However, it's nice to have the few clips that I do have like our parents dancing and the lion dancing.  So in 2008, I went to 6 weddings including my own - my 2 weddings, my cousin's wedding in Boston, another cousin's wedding in New York, Roger's cousin's wedding in Portland, OR, and Cindy and Andre's wedding in the DR (the topic of my next post).  It could've been 7, but I unfortunately had to miss a wedding in Georgia. Overall, 2008 I would say was a great year.  I've been married for about 6 months now and loving it!

After planning my wedding, Gund Kwok's 10-year anniversary, and helping with Cindy's wedding, I was told by many that I am in the wrong profession and should go into event planning.  I had thought about it and even played around with the idea, but I don't know if I have the passion to put my whole self into something like that.  I mean I enjoyed planning my wedding, the anniversary, and Cindy's wedding because I had personal investments in those events. I don't know if I'll like planning events for strangers.

So what's up for the year of the ox?  I have a lot to look forward to this year - including a mini BGC reunion in DC this month (woohoo!), a trip to Montreal/Quebec City with Roger during Valentine's Day weekend, MATCH freshmen DC trip in March (yes, I'm excited about this.), Roger's graduation, more weddings, 10-year high school reunion, more trips, a potential job and/or location change, and of course, I can't forget Joyce's book release! If you don't know already, my sister's book is coming out in Spring 2009!  Check it out and pre-order now!  Oh, and if you're wondering - no babies for me this year.   We're thinking that won't happen until the year of the dragon since we don't know want an ox, tiger, or a rabbit.  HAHA!  I'm not kidding.

As many of you know, I've been part of Gund Kwok for the past 2 1/2 years.  This past Sunday, we celebrated the troupe's 10 years of existence.  It was a wonderful and successful day.  Guess who was the main organizer?  Yes, yours truly! About 180 people attended and we had everything from performances, special awards, speakers, video showing highlights through the 10 years, and much more!  It definitely took a lot of work to prepare for this since I was in every performance (there were four), and we literally had only about a month to plan all the pieces that went into this day.  Both of my parents and my oldest sister Carol was there.  My very good friend Amy, her boyfriend Dave, and her sister May were also present for the festivities.  I was very honored to have them there to see me perform.  My parents were unbelievably impressed with my troupe which made me even more proud to be part of Gund Kwok.

Here are some pictures of me in the lion! I wish I had video to show you.  To BGC, I can probably show you video when I come down to DC in January!



 





DONE!

It's almost December 17th! You know what that means? 5 more days before I leave for the Dominican Republic for Cindy's wedding! Weeeee! I can't wait! It's going to be so much fun! Banana boat here I come! 

In August, I spent a week in Seattle helping Cindy, one of my bridesmaids, plan her DW wedding in Dominican Republic in December. Here is Cindy and her hottie future husband Andre on the left at my wedding. While I was in Seattle, Cindy and I made her invitations, and I even got to see her in her wedding gown when she picked it up from the store. OooH! Pretty! Anne Marie, another one of her bridesmaids, and I also threw her a Tropical Naughty & Nice Bridal Shower. Check it out! I got most of the decorations from Paper Source and iParty.


The food was from La Isla (2320 NW Market Street), and it was really good. We had platanos, empanadas, and other yummy goodness.  Anne Marie also made delicious coconut cake and key lime bars.  The shower was quite successful, and everyone had a lot of fun.

Recently, Cindy and Andre took engagement photos in Los Angeles with Miguel Mayo.  The shoot was actually for free since Miguel gives a free shoot to one couple every month or something like that.  The pictures were gorgeous.  Check out a couple of my favorites...


After my Seattle trip, I flew down to Portland for a wedding.  Roger's cousin, Jessica, was getting married to her high school sweetheart, Dustin.  The wedding was a lot of fun.  Both Jessica and Dustin cried during the ceremony.  It was absolutely beautiful.  Aren't they so cute?  The ceremony was held in the library room of the Governor's Hotel.  It was very intimate with tall standing candles lining the aisle. For her guest book, Jessica had a framed picture of her and her husband. People signed around the picture.  I've seen this idea before at my sister's wedding, and I still think it's a great idea for a guest book.  Near the bar on the tables, there were old photos of her parents' and his parents' weddings.  Roger's parents and relatives got a kick of seeing themselves in the picture.  It was a nice touch.  As for the escort cards, she had CDs made of their favorite songs attached to a card that stated your name and your table.  Below, you'll see how beautiful the tables looked.


This trip also served another purpose. Roger and I have been talking about moving to the west coast for awhile now.  We know we don't want to settle down in Massachusetts.  I personally am done with the snow.  I don't want to live anywhere in the Northeast.  Roger doesn't have a major preference on where we live, but he likes the idea of moving to the west coast.  His brother and other relatives live there as well.  We both agreed that California is not an option since frankly we don't want to live there, so that leaves the Pacific Northwest.  I really like Seattle since I've been there at least once a year for the past 5 years.  However, if Roger was to stay with his current company, it would be easier to move to Portland.  Plus, Seattle is only 3 hours away from Portland.  So, that's what we were also doing in Portland this past summer - checking out our future residence.  Roger and I rented a car and drove around to check out the city.  I can't say I love it yet since I was only there for a short weekend, but I definitely like it.  The city is beautiful, and I just loved the weather.  I talked to one of the guests who attended the wedding.  She raved about all the fun events and places to go to in Portland which got me excited. So, the current plan is that we move there within the next two to three years.  Eventually, Roger's parents will move to Portland as well once we've settled there and start having babies.  That's right. I said it. Roger and I really want to start having a babies within three years.  We'll see what happens!

WOW! 3 updates in one day. I love having days off!

It's easier than I ever imagined.  Before I got married, I knew I wanted to change my name.  I also knew that I wanted to do what my mother did when she got married.  She just kept her last time by making it a part of her middle name and then added her new last name.  How could I just delete any part of my name?  So, keeping all of it was the best decision. 

Step 1:  I printed the SS-5 form online and filled it out. I went to the Social Security office with the completed form, my marriage license, and my driver's license.  There was almost no line, and I literally waited for less than 10 minutes.  It was so fast.  She took my form and licenses, typed in the information in her computer, and printed out a confirmation for me.  She told me to sign it saying that I received this letter.  I was unclear when my new name would be official, so I signed it using just my maiden name.  She looked at it, and quickly slid the letter back to me saying I need to sign it with my new name!    The letter stated that I would get my new SS card within two weeks. I actually ended up getting it within a week.

Step 2: I went to the RMV in Chinatown.  I filled out the form they gave me to change information on my driver's license.  I waited for about 30 minutes.  All they asked for was my license and the completed form.  I don't even remember them asking for my marriage license or my SS card. Unfortunately, the RMV couldn't fit my new whole name on my license, so I had to quickly make a decision.  I ended up having my first name, middle initial, maiden last name, and new last name put on my license.  It actually looks weird since my middle initial and maiden last name is one word.  If I could do it all over again, I would've just put my middle initial and the initial of my maiden name.  I immediately had to take a new picture too which I did not plan on, so now I don't really like my new license picture either.  I would get my new license within a week.

Step 3:  On that same day, I went to the bank to change my name.  They asked to see my marriage license and my new driver's license (which was just a temporary license until I get the real one in the mail).  Since Roger and I have joint account, I ended up having to bring home a few forms for him to sign.  I returned them the next day. 

Step 4:  Since I'm going to the DR this December, I needed up renew my passport.  This was the perfect time since I wanted to change my name anyway.  I picked up a mail-in passport renewal form from the post office.  I had passport photos taken and attached those to the application.  I also sent them my marriage license and my old passport.  I believe it cost me around $70 too.  I received my new passport within 60 days.  They also returned all my documents to me. 

Step 5:  It was pretty easy changing my name at work too.  It was just a matter of filling out new forms with my new name.  It literally tok me 10 minutes to fill them out and return them to my HR department. 

I still have yet to change my name on my student loans.  I have to write a letter and fax that with a copy of my new social security card in order to officially change my name.  I believe that's it!

The only thing in the whole name changing process did I find scary was when I went on my trip to Seattle and Portland this past August after the wedding.  I bought my tickets for this trip before the official name change, and you can't change the name on the ticket since tickets are not transferable even if you get married.  Delta just told me that I will just need to bring my marriage license with me and show the gate when they check my license and ticket.  Not only did the TSA peeps never ask for my marriage license, I actually at first just gave it to them to show that I was the person on the ticket.  Eventually, I never even offered it as evidence, and they just let me through.  Does anyone see any problems with this?  This happened at the Boston, Seattle, and Portland airports.  Tsk. Tsk.

After the wedding, most of our out-of-town guests and my college friends met at Felt.  I was extremely tired, but I knew I would have fun.  It was nice to just hang out and not care about what was going to happen next or when I had to change next.  Our guests congregated on the first and second floors, so I found myself going up and down the stairs.  Here are some pictures with BGC at Felt. 

   

Overall, I'm glad we decided to direct people to the "after party" so I got a chance to see and hang out with people.  When I think about it, having small weddings is an advantage because you get to spend more quality time with your guests.  At bigger weddings like mine, I spent time with my guests, but not as much as I'd like to especially since many of them came from so far away.  At the same time, I was very lucky to have my closest friends and family come and celebrate this special day with me. 

The day was absolutely amazing with no big glitches.  Even though Roger forgot his ring and the reception was not exactly following the timeline, the day went as planned.  It actually was way better than I ever expected.  Before the wedding, Roger was worried about how I would react if anything bad happened.  However, I prepared myself for the worse and got nothing but the best.   

There's still so much to update about what happened after the wedding.  I actually have a running list going...

1. Name Change
2. Trip to Seattle and Portland
3. Wedding gown preservation
4. Moving back in with the 'rents
5. The Making of the Wedding Photo Album
6.  Friends who started their own DOC company
and the newest one...
7.  Cancellation of our Honeymoon Cruise on the Baltic Sea

I know, you want to hear everything.  Because of my abnormal posting patterns, I'll make an effort to blog a lot today.  Enjoy!

The only slow song that played that night was the last song.  Unfortunately, I don't remember what the DJ played for the last song, but many took the chance to slow it down after the craziness.  Isn't everyone so cute?

I couldn't believe that it was all over. The day flew by!  Before this day, I was afraid of what hiccups might occur throughout the day, but everything went as planned.  I couldn't have been more satisfied with how everything went.

When the song ended, I wasn't prepared for what was about to happen.  I didn't really plan on who was going to clean up and who was going to be responsible for bringing back my belongings and other wedding related items.  So, family and friends started helping me out.  I think most people took home the table cards which had pictures of Roger and me from our engagement shoot in NYC.  I believe all the table card holders were pretty much gone as well. I wanted to save those and sell them, but no such luck.  There was only one box of white wine left. HAH! Then there were some extra favors, flower arrangements, bouquets, menus, and you can't forget all my dresses, shoes, and accessories.  I wish I had a picture of what my wedding gown looked like at the end of the night.  My mom basically took a big plastic bag and stuffed my dress in it.  Of course, my parents took care of all the red envelopes and cards guests gave me.  We would open them together the next night.  Overall, it was a little more hectic then I wanted it to be, but everything was picked up and brought back to my parents' home in Malden (currently my home, but we'll save that for another post.)

This sounds like the end of the night, but it wasn't.  I was really tired and actually had second thoughts about whether or not I wanted to go.  However, I realized that I had so many out-out-town guests who came to Boston to continue partying and celebrating with me, so how could I not go?  We were now off to the after-party at Felt...

Commence the dancing....

I believe Roger's Nerd House (college friends) got on the dance floor first.  Here are some pictures of those crazy guys....

It was great to see the older folks get up and dance as well!  This first picture is of my aunt who's quite old! I've never seen her move that much! HAH! She's dancing with one of her sons.  Apparently, before my wedding, they hadn't been talking that much because of an issue they've been having.  However, after my wedding, they started talking again!  The second picture is of Roger's family. That's Roger's dad again showing his smooth moves! Roger's mom is cute as always!

I wanted to surprise my guests with something fun during the dancing
portion of the night.  Of course, I had glowsticks! You see, back in the day during my Brandeis days, my group of
friends and I were really into trance/house....I mean like really into
it.  We glowsticked at the clubs (Avalon Thursdays!), campus parties,
and even in our dorm rooms.  I also made a playlist of some of the
classics such as Sandstorm (Darude), Castles in the Sky (Ian Van Dahl),
Blue (Eiffel 65), and 9pm (ATB).  Unfortunately, my DJs didn't play the
whole playlist.  I had Alice Deejay and ZombieNation on there and we
never heard those.  Oh well. It was still a lot of fun! I could tell my
Brandeis friends really appreciated the throw back, and all my guests enjoyed the light shows!

Roger, of course, tried to show what he got....nothing. HAH! It was pretty funny though.  Unfortunately, since I glowsticked for everyone first, no one really wanted to show what they could do.  They can all glowstick though!  I know...I'm just that good! Thankfully, there was one brave soul who came out - my bridesmaid Cindy!  I couldn't have imagined glowsticking with anyone else but her after our college years...   

YAY! I was hoping my photographer, Yun Gen Yang, caught this moment.  This brought back so many memories of us glowsticking at Brandeis.  Back in the day, this girl even got into using strings and was pretty good.  I tried to get into it, but always ended up with bruises on my head.  HAH!  I know I've mentioned it before, but I'm her matron of honor at her wedding this December in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic! I'm sooooooo honored and so fricken' excited! I really really really can't wait.  Can't ya tell?

The dance floor was pretty packed the rest of the night. Check out these fun pictures!


Roger's youngest brother, Waiman, started the train.  You see the guy with the red cape?  Umm...yeah...that's Roger's college buddy and uhh...the cape?  That's a table cloth! HAH!  Look at everyone getting down! I wish I remembered which song was playing.

Finally, this was one of my favorite pictures of the night! Don't you love it? 

Since there wasn't a lot of time to dance, there was only time for one slow song...the last song of the night....

Since we did not have any silly Chinese wedding games planned (thank
goodness), this next activity was an excellent touch of entertainment. 
We absolutely did not plan this at all, and it was our DJ who really
spearheaded this "game."  When the guests started clinking their
glasses for us to kiss, our DJ got on the mic
and asked something along the lines of, "Is that all you can do?" 

She
ended up requesting our guests to volunteer themselves to come up to
the dance floor and show us how the kiss should be done.  There was
hesitation from the audience at first.  I saw people yelling at each
other and urging each other to go up.  Finally, the first brave ones
came on to the dance floor - Sarah and Chris.  I've known Sarah for
about five years now since we did Teach For America.  She and her
husband Chris flew to Boston from Wisconsin, and I believe they were
just about to move back to New Mexico too. So it was very special to me
that they made the trip out to Boston for my big day.  Our DJ had them
stand across the dance floor from each other.  She told them that they
had to dance across the dance floor to each other before they could
kiss.  They were so cute, and Chris was hilarious.

This
wasn't enough though.  We wanted to make our guests work harder for our
kiss.  So who's up next?  Jill and Jamie! Jill was a former Gund Kwok
sister.  Jill and Jamie actually recommended our DJs to us! YAY!
Apparently, our DJ did the same game at their wedding, so they decided
to dance across the room to each other again!

We
weren't done just yet! There was a bit of a pause about who was brave
enough to come out next.  Again, I saw people yelling at each other to
come onto the dance floor.  I looked at Alisa and Chris since I knew
they wanted to come up.  Later on, Alisa told me that once I locked
eyes on her, she knew she had to come up. This duo was great! Congrats
to them on the new baby on the way!   BGC are all going to be aunties!

Finally,
my DJ asked for dancers of the older generation.  I started looking
around the room, and I don't know who suggested this next couple, but
I'm so glad he/she did.  At first the woman didn't want to, but we kept
pushing her out there while the man was up and ready to go.  Who was
this couple? My parents!

I
love the way Roger and I react in all of these photos, but especially
in the ones with my parents.  I couldn't stop laughing.  When the music
started and my dad started dancing, the whole room roared with
laughter.  He started doing this weird-jumping-arm-moving dance that
I've never seen before.  You can even see my sister and matron of honor
Joyce out of her seat enjoying the show.  I don't think I've ever
laughed so hard.  It was amazing.  My mother was so cute too.  She did
this little step and moved her arms a bit.  She did that all the way
across the room and just stared and smiled at my dad the whole way. 
The best part was that when they actually met each other in the middle
of the dance floor, he kept stealing kisses.  He would pull my mom's
head towards him quickly, kiss her, and then resumed the dancing move. 
He did this a few times!  Of course, who has to go next? Roger's
parents!

Roger's
dad was very suave and everyone loved him too.  What's up with the dads
and their cool moves? Mommy Liu also did the little step, but she was
laughing at Dad the whole way she was dancing towards him.  The funny
part was that he was so focused on dancing that he forgot to kiss her,
so Roger and I kept yelling out in Chinese, "Kiss! Kiss!"

So
that was it for the guests.  It was now time for us to get up there and
show our moves.  I had no idea what we were about to do, but I loved
how random it was.  We took our places and the music started.  I
believe the song was Macho Man.  Here we are....


Yeah, it was pretty random, but pretty funny. Don't ya think?

After all that dancing.....Happy Family! Awwww!

It
was almost 10:00pm at this time, and we had to be done by 11pm.  So, at
this time, we opened up the dance floor.  Our guests thought they were
just going to normally dance for the last hour, but little did they
know, we had another surprise in store for them....